Riz Ortolani, an Italian composer of dozens of film scores, whose Grammy-winning instrumental melody featured in the 1962 film \u201cMondo Cane\u201d evolved into \u201cMore,\u201d the celebrated anthem of love covered by sensuous crooners around the globe, died on Jan. 23 at his villa outside Rome. He was 87.<\/p>\n
The cause was complications after surgery, his son, Enrico, said.<\/p>\n
At home in a variety of musical styles and moods \u2014 jaunty humor, buzzing suspense, lush romanticism \u2014 Mr. Ortolani was among Italy\u2019s busiest film composers for almost half a century, working in a wide range of genre movies, including spaghetti westerns, thrillers and erotica.<\/p>\n
Though not widely known in the United States \u2014 unlike his countryman the composer Ennio Morricone, he was not generally associated with popular American films \u2014 Mr. Ortolani wrote the scores for a number of English-language films. Among them were \u201cThe Yellow Rolls-Royce\u201d (1964), a triptych about three different owners of the same car, with an original screenplay by the playwright Terence Rattigan; \u201cBuona Sera, Mrs. Campbell\u201d (1968), a comedy with Gina Lollobrigida, Phil Silvers, Telly Savalas and Peter Lawford about an Italian woman with a daughter who has been getting child support from three former American soldiers who return to Italy for a reunion; and \u201cThe Hunting Party\u201d (1971), the western drama with Candice Bergen and Gene Hackman.<\/p>\n
More recently, the director Quentin Tarantino, a fan, used Mr. Ortolani\u2019s music in his movies \u201cInglourious Basterds\u201d and \u201cDjango Unchained.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mr. Ortolani is probably best known, at least in this country, for two films. The first was \u201cMondo Cane\u201d (\u201cA Dog\u2019s World\u201d), a documentary of sorts presenting a kaleidoscope of cultural oddities and human behavior, from peculiar to perverse, that the filmmakers, Paolo Cavara, Franco Prosperi and Gualtiero Jacopetti, found in far-flung corners of the world. The score, consisting of several distinct musical themes repeated in varying arrangements, is credited to Mr. Ortolani and Nino Oliviero, though Mr. Ortolani\u2019s family said Mr. Ortolani had been responsible for all the themes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTi Guarder\u00f2 Nel Cuore,\u201d or \u201cMore,\u201d as the song came to be known \u2014 the lyrics, beginning \u201cMore than the greatest love the world has known,\u201d were subsequently written by Norman Newell \u2014 accompanied scenes depicting a parade of female lifeguards in Australia, drunken beer drinkers in Germany and a French artist using naked women smeared with blue paint as brushes.<\/p>\n
It won a 1963 Grammy Award for best instrumental theme and was nominated for an Oscar for best song. (The winner was \u201cCall Me Irresponsible,\u201d by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn, from the film \u201cPapa\u2019s Delicate Condition.\u201d) Since then \u201cMore\u201d has been recorded by Frank Sinatra, Sergio Franchi, Doris Day, Andy Williams, the Supremes, Bobby Darin and Herb Alpert\u2019s Tijuana Brass, among many others.<\/p>\n
The second film for which Mr. Ortolani was well known in the United States was \u201cCannibal Holocaust\u201d (1980), directed by Ruggero Deodato, which prefigured \u201cThe Blair Witch Project\u201d in its use of what it presented as found footage taken by a team of documentary filmmakers who had vanished in the Amazon jungle. Ostensibly an examination of what it means to be civilized, it became a notorious cult film and was especially controversial for its scenes of bloody violence, animal slaughter and gang rape \u2014 a context that makes Mr. Ortolani\u2019s often serene score strikingly, even appallingly, ironic.<\/p>\n
Riziero Ortolani was born in Pesaro, on Italy\u2019s Adriatic coast, on March 25, 1926, the last of six children. His father, Domenico, a postal employee, was a music lover who taught himself to play the double bass and presented his youngest child with a violin when he was 4.<\/p>\n
Young Riziero studied at the Rossini Conservatory of Music in Pesaro and then moved to Rome, where he worked for RAI, Italy\u2019s national broadcasting company, directing its jazz orchestra. Before beginning his movie career in the 1950s, he served in the Italian Air Force and played in its orchestra.<\/p>\n
In addition to his son, Mr. Ortolani is survived by his wife, Katyna Ranieri; a daughter, Rizia; and two grandchildren.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ortolani received a second Oscar nomination in 1970 for the song \u201cTill Love Touches Your Life,\u201d from the film \u201cMadron.\u201d He won a Golden Globe in 1966 for the song \u201cForget Domani,\u201d from \u201cThe Yellow Rolls-Royce,\u201d and received many awards and nominations in Europe, including a lifetime achievement award from the World Soundtrack Association in Ghent, Belgium, in 2013.